Soon to Be New Subscriber Questions

I'm now with another provider for TV, internet and phone. I'm probably going to switch to Dish for TV, and go with Time Warner for internet and phone. I've decided that I want one Hopper and two Joey's. From what I've read, I can get them free beginning 3/15/2012, since I'm a new Dish subscriber. I have a few questions:

1. Is it better to order directly from Dish, from one of the numerous online Dish retailers, or from a local Dish retailer?
2. Is there an online listing of Blockbuster @ Home titles, so I can look at it before I order?
3. Is there an online listing of free on demand titles?
4. The Sling adapter looks interesting. I travel some, so that would allow me to hook up my laptop to the TV in my hotel room. Would I only be able to watch content recorded on the Hopper? Would it give me access to BB @ Home content?

Not sure of the price, don't believe it is free with the lower base packages.
1. Always better to go directly thru Dish unless you can find reliable local dealer (sometimes you can get better deals, mostly you do not get what you think you signed for).
2. www.blockbusterathome.com/ You can view, but you need Dish sign with dish account in to order anything.
3. Your subscription determines what is free for you. Can't get listings until you are a customer.
4. You would need dsl connectivity in your hotel room. Connection would depend on the tv in the hotel, otherwise laptop would connect to blockbuster home, sling would give you access to your dvr recordings on your hard drive as well as watching live channels.

Don't get too excited about BB@Home. It's basically just on-demand versions of a few premium channels which pales in comparison to something like Netflix. The best part of the BB deal is discs by mail, and even that isn't as good as Netflix. I think DishOnline gives you the BB streaming content instead of sling, but I've honestly never tried it having never found anything worth watching. The kinds of hotels I go to have internet so slow, anything larger than an iPhone looks terrible when you stream. You'd need some serious internet speed both upload from home and in the hotel to get a decent picture on a big screen. All that being said, I love Dish, just not the BB plan.